The manual loading of cartridges into a detachable box magazine can be difficult under normal circumstances, even for individuals with average dexterity and strength. To loading a magazine, one must press a cartridge against a spring-biased follower or a cartridge/stack of cartridges already loaded, and, each successive cartridge that is loaded requires more force. Due to the initial strength of the spring, it can be difficult for most people to fully load a brand new magazine of moderate size, and the loading of cartridges even in older magazines where the spring has weakened can be particularly difficult for those with less strength and/or less dexterity or for those in inclement weather—it is hard to load cartridges with cold and/or numb hands or with shooting gloves.
Additionally, the improper loading of cartridges—for example, when one accidently presses a cartridge against the shoulders of the magazine instead of the follower or top-most cartridge—can lead to a compromising of the structure of the detachable box magazine resulting in the need for early replacement. As a result, attempts have been made to facilitate the loading of cartridges into detachable box magazines. Notably, prior art attempts have not been well received, as there currently appears to be no such product in the marketplace. Those products shown in prior patents/patent applications are simply inadequate for the job.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 9,303,934, proposes using a rod operatively attached to the follower, the rod having a grip that can be grasped by the user to pull the rod and hence the follower downward in the housing of the detachable box magazine. This requires a secure attachment between the rod and a plate that interacts with the follower, and this attachment is achieved by screwing the rod into threads in the plate. When fully loaded, a long rod extends out of the bottom of the magazine, which is highly undesirable, so it must be screwed out from engagement with the plate, and then stored or placed aside for further use. Notably the threading and unthreading of the rod is not so easy. For a tall magazine it is not easy to align threads on the end of a rod with threads in a plate held at the distal end of the magazine and then rotate the rod and engage the threads. This device also requires pulling the rod against the biasing member, requiring user strength rather than employing an mechanical advantage.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,468,730 discloses a device having elements extending out beyond the bottom of the magazine housing in an undesirable manner. A wheel extends from the base of the housing and is rolled against a surface to wind a wire about an axle of the wheel, the wire being attached to the follower such that the follower is retracted in the housing as the wheel is rotated. In addition to having undesirable elements extending beyond the typical base of a detachable box magazine, this system would undesirably allow the introduction of debris into the housing, inasmuch as the wheel must extend out of the housing with portions thereof contacting dirty surfaces and the like during use. As the wheel is rotated, the debris the wheel encounters is ultimately brought into the interior of the housing as the wheel rotates. Additionally, this system is simply not user friendly, requiring suitable friction between the wheel and the surface with which it is engaged to roll the wheel and wind the wire. Finally, the ratchet mechanism it employs, while being practical, is unnecessarily complicated, to the extent that it can even be fully understood from the disclosure provided. As best understood, it appears the ratchet will release when the wheel is lifted from the surface it is engaged with during winding. Thus it appears one must maintain forceful contact between the wheel and the surface in order to load a cartridge. If one winds the follower downward and then lifts the wheel off of the surface while reaching for cartridges to load, the follower will forcefully return to the shoulders (or to seat the already-loaded cartridges), and one must repeat the winding procedure.
The present inventor has recognized the need in the art for an improved retraction mechanism for a detachable box magazine—one that is practical in all regards as to function and safety and ease of manufacture and use, and thus practical for actual commercial production to serve the large number of individuals that desire an easier way to load cartridges.